William P. Hutchins
Holy Innocents Church, Sheraden
William P. Hutchins is not one of our most celebrated architects, but he did give the Catholics in Pittsburgh some distinguished buildings. Perhaps he ought to be more celebrated than he is. An article about St. James Church in Wilkinsburg, reprinted from an old feature in the Tribune-Review, gives us some more information about him. He was born in 1883 and died in 1941; the main part of his career seems to have spanned the last twenty years of his life. In ecclesiastical architecture, he worked primarily in the Gothic style, but his version of that style evolved from more traditional Gothic to a streamlined almost modernist Gothic exemplified by Resurrection Church in Brookline. Like most ecclesiastical architects, however, he had a practice that went beyond churches to include private homes and commercial buildings.
Resurrection Church, Brookline
That same article gives us a list of buildings designed by Hutchins; some of the listings are misspelled, and several of the locations are identified only as “Pittsburgh.” We have adopted that list as the beginning of ours, doing our best to correct the mistakes and identify the neighborhoods.
| Building | Year |
|---|---|
| McCabe house, 372 South Evaline, Bloomfield | 1921 |
| St. Veronica’s Parish School, Ambridge | 1923 |
| Holy Innocents Church, Sheridan | 1924 |
| St. Brendan’s School and Convent, Braddock | 1924 |
| Sacred Heart School, Emsworth | 1925 |
| St. Joseph’s Church, Coraopolis | 1925 |
| Mother of Good Council (Counsel?) School, Homewood? | 1927 |
| St. Francis Xavier, Brighton Heights | 1927 |
| Additions to St. Canice Church, Knoxville | 1927 |
| St. Ursula’s Church, Allison Park | 1928 |
| St. Canice Rectory, Knoxville | 1929 |
| Allegheny Valley Bank, Lawrenceville | 1929 |
| St. John the Evangelist Convent, South Side | 1929 |
| St. James’ Church, Wilkinsburg | 1930 |
| St. John the Baptist, Monaca | 1930 |
| St. Agatha’s Church, Bridgeville | 1931 |
| St. Mary of Mercy Church, Downtown | 1936 |
| All Saints’ Church, New Kensington | 1939 |
| Church of the Resurrection, Brookline | 1939 |
| St. John’s School, Uniontown | 1939 |
| Father Sigmund Memorial Hall, Toner Institute, Brookline (demolished) | 1941 |
St. Francis Xavier Church, Brighton Heights
St. Mary of Mercy Church, Downtown
